Schwartz, Maxwell re-elected to board

Property owners in the Neosho Transportation Development District voted on Tuesday to re-elect Gene Schwartz and Jeff Maxwell to the district's board of directors.

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By Whitney Saporito

Neosho Daily News - Neosho, MO

By Whitney Saporito

Posted May. 1, 2013 at 12:23 AM
Updated May 1, 2013 at 12:25 AM

By Whitney Saporito

Posted May. 1, 2013 at 12:23 AM
Updated May 1, 2013 at 12:25 AM

Property owners in the Neosho Transportation Development District voted on Tuesday to re-elect Gene Schwartz and Jeff Maxwell to the district's board of directors.

Both men were re-elected without contest to three-year terms.

Landowners within the district serve as the voters in the TDD, with their number of votes based on the amount of acres they have in the district.

The district, which stretches from Waldo Hatler Drive to Industrial Drive, and from Kodiak Road to just east of Laramie Lane, is made up of 550.48 acres.

Of that, 235.98 votes were cast for Schwartz and Maxwell, the total of all votes cast in Tuesday's election.

The election only drew approximately 43 percent turnout, with the district's largest property owner, the City of Neosho, opting not to participate in the property owners meeting and election.

The city also chose not to partake in the previous TDD property owners election, due to their ongoing legal challenge of the validity of the TDD.

With the ownership of the golf course, the city's acreage makes up roughly 40 percent of the TDD, at 219 acres.

The Neosho R-5 School District also chose not to participate in Tuesday's election.

With the Neosho Middle School property, the district owns 24.46 acres.

The remaining 306.91 acres represent private ownership.

"Seventy-six percent of the private property owners voted in the election by acres," said consultant Darrell Gross on Tuesday.

He said a certain percentage of voters is not required for the TDD election.

Though they are required to hold their annual election the first week in April, because of an Aug. 2012 court ruling, the most recent TDD election was held just six months ago, in October 2012.

The October election was held after Judge Kevin Selby ordered to throw out the results of the TDD's July 16 election, due to lack of lawful notice of the meeting for two consecutive weeks, and because of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission's participation in the election.

The TDD had originally scheduled their current election to be held the first week of April, as a June court order had called for, however, an error in the published legal caused the meeting to be postponed until Tuesday, to allow time for the legal notice announcing the meeting and election to be published correctly as required by state law.

In other business, the TDD board of directors also met Tuesday, following the property owners meeting and election, and voted to re-appoint Ray Stipp as the TDD board's chairman.

The board also re-appointed Maxwell to his role as vice-chairman of the board, and Schwartz to his role as treasurer.